


Introduction

by BurrSquee, Tikor



Series: Castebook: No Moon [1]
Category: Exalted
Genre: Gen, Lunars, POV First Person, Roleplaying Character, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 07:17:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13759032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurrSquee/pseuds/BurrSquee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: A veteran and his daughter stumble upon the origin of sorcery.





	1. Long Before the Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings, dear reader. Welcome to the Lunar Castebooks fan project written by Tikor and BurrSquee, edited by Xaun. This Castebook, No Moon, has the following chapters, though they are organized as works here in AO3:
> 
> Introduction / Long Before the Wolf  
> Chapter 1: Through Luna’s Grace  
> Chapter 2: The Trials We Face  
> Chapter 3: Our World, Our Territory  
> Chapter 4: The Songs They Sing Of Us  
> Chapter 5: Our Oral History  
> Chapter 6: Gifts of the New Moon  
> Appendix 1: Signature Characters  
> Appendix 2: Other Notable No Moons
> 
> This is not a complete game. Castebooks, by their nature, are expansion-type content where the Lunars and those around them reflect on the miracle of their existence. We don’t own Exalted, or many of the canon characters expanded by this fan work. It is a spiritual and unofficial continuation of the Caste and Aspect books from first edition. Lunars have never had their society and personages expanded in fiction and crunch to the extent the Solars and Dragon-Blooded have - until now. We humbly hope that Lunar player characters and Storytellers of any chronicle will find this fanwork as inspiring as its forebearers were for Solars and Dragon-Blooded.
> 
> As of this writing, the Lunar splatbook has yet to be released so the [meta series](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12548572/chapters/28578012) will have commentary and mechanics to aid incorporating these Castebooks to your third edition table. If you need a base set of Lunar Charms for a Lunar player character, there are a few conversions/reimaginings on the Exalted forums ([such as this one](http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1077697-watch-me-fumble-my-way-through-making-a-charmset-in-yet-another-lunar-homebrew-thread)). We expect 3e Lunars to surprise and delight us by deviating from the content that came before and from the expanded story threads you read here. Please keep the source of those discontinuities in mind when reading this from the future.
> 
> We hope you enjoy reading the Lunar Castebooks fan project as much as we did writing it.

Long before the wolf lived the first sorcerer, Bar-Izahd. Bar-Izahd fought the authors of the world in the great war of his generation against the Primordials. He and the Exalted host were victorious, beginning Exalted-kind’s rule over Creation. But Bar-Izahd learned many dark truths during his time spying on the host’s enemies, truths that he could not forget. He could see his enemies’ mark in every place of Creation, and even his love for Gaia and his respect for Autochthon could not overcome his revulsion at the sight. He had bathed in too much demon’s blood, he had lost too many loved ones to their claws and fangs, he had sacrificed part of his very sanity to overcome their might, like most of the Exalted that lived through that dark time.

In the peace that followed, Bar-Izahd had a daughter by a spirit of Yu-Shan, where he spent his time away from Creation. They named her Mishiko. She grew into a lovable and curious god-blooded, but to her father’s dismay that curiosity often turned towards Creation. He sheltered her as best he could, but the heavenly city is intimately connected with Creation and its goings-on. Her mother was a minor goddess of jasmine flowers, and she would show her daughter the fields of Creation where they grew. With her mother showing Mishiko Creation’s beauty, Bar-Izahd could not hide from her the world he had fought to claim, the world of his nightmares.

In Luna’s Celestial Manse, the Auberge, nestled in the Forest of Endless Prey, at the sacred pool where the phantasmal game drank, Bar-Izahd shed his tears as was his custom. In this Celestial place he felt safe from the horrors that haunted his dreams and seemed to jump from every shadow he saw while awake. A woman came to him in this moon-touched place whose form he did not know. Her hair was silver, her limbs long, her skin pale, and her clothes were woven ambrosia colored in blues and whites and silvers. She told him, “I have met your daughter. We have wandered these wilds and I have come to love her. Tell me, what would you want most in the world for her, and I may grant it.”

Bar-Izahd did not hesitate long. He told the unknown spirit, “I wish Mishiko could find and love a world far from Creation so completely that she could forget that tainted place. A new world where we and her mother could be happy together.”

The spirit asked, “Is not the heavenly city of Yu-Shan such a place?”

Bar-Izahd said to the spirit, “Yu-Shan touches Creation at sixty gates and ten thousand minds. There is no forgetting Creation in Yu-Shan.”

The spirit thought for a moment. Her form blinked momentarily. She said to Bar-Izahd, “I have marked four sacred lands in both your mind and Mishiko’s. A fifth sacred land remains secret. If you and she quest through all five, you will find your new world on the other side.” Then the spirit vanished.

Bar-Izahd wasted no time collecting his daughter, kissing his spirit lover goodbye, and making the journey to the four sacred lands. Each was in a different direction of Creation. The first was in the far South, more South than the Burning Sands, in a place the Wyld has eaten now, but was part of Creation back then. A Demesne there floated as flames trapped in floating crystal. Though this reminded Bar-Izahd of a great demon, he found his courage in front of his daughter, walked on the floating, flaming crystals and placed his hand on the most central of their number to attune to the Demesne, gaining its understanding. Mishiko followed him, and she claimed the place of power alongside her father. The second was in the far West, on an island as large as the Blessed Isle that is broken now, but was whole back then. A Demesne there rested in the black depths of a nigh-bottomless pool. It’s darkness evaded even Luna’s curious light. Though this reminded Bar-Izahd of a great demon, he found his courage in front of his daughter, swam down to the very bottom, and placed his hand on the sandy bottom to attune to the Demesne, gaining its understanding. Mishiko followed him, and she claimed the place of power alongside her father. The third was in the frigid North, the holy city of Ondar Shambal. Among the concentrated prayers a Demesne formed in the dancing sunlight, no more substantial than the wind itself. Though this reminded Bar-Izahd of a great demon, he found his courage in front of his daughter, jumped into the air and placed his hand in the light of the sunbeam to attune to the Demesne, gaining its understanding. Mishiko followed him, and she claimed the place of power alongside her father. The fourth was in the near East, in the orderly city of Denandsor, a place abandoned in the current Age. A Demesne there wrote the laws of the world on ever-changing stone for all to see, endlessly repeating to enraptured scholars and sages. Though this reminded Bar-Izahd of a great demon, he found his courage in front of his daughter to look upon these laws until they had seen them repeat, attuning to the Demesne and gaining its understanding. Mishiko followed him, and she claimed the place of power alongside her father. 

At each Demesne, Mishiko would leave a poem, and Bar-Izahd would leave a jasmine flower. Travelling between each, father and daughter would guess at where the fifth sacred land would be. But now, here at the fourth sacred land, they had no solid answer. This enraged Bar-Izahd, who felt that all of his bravery to face Creation was summoned for nothing, that the pain and fear he had suffered in the Terrestrial world was for naught. So he rushed to the top of Omphalos, the mountain at the center of Creation. Mishiko followed him. There, he shouted to the spirit who had sent him on this quest with no ending whose name he did not know. His bellows were so resonant they cracked the earth, and from the crack sprang a beast with a man’s face, a serpent’s tongue, and a cat’s body. Enraged, Bar-Izahd attacked the bizarre creature.

For hours Mishiko watched her father battle the beast, until she saw the secret shining on its tongue that it could not say. She stole that secret and read it to herself, then began to cry. She told her father and the beast, “You must be free.” Then, she threw herself from atop the mountain. Engaged with the beast as he was, Bar-Izahd was not able to save her. After watching her fall, he threw the beast aside and rushed down the mountain. When he had climbed back down to the bottom and found her falling place, he held the broken body of his daughter, whom he had quested with for most of her life, with whom he wanted nothing more than to live with in a world far from the Creation now tainted by another nightmare, he saw the truth of his quest. Creation after the revelation of the beast’s secret was the new world he sought. Through this revelation he gained the power of sorcery to impose his will upon the world. He saw that eventually the secret wielded by him and others would obscure the authors’ marks upon Creation like the ocean shifts the seafloor.

Immediately, Bar-Izahd set to work mastering his new gift. He engaged in a working to preserve his daughter’s body in a tomb of glass. Through his sorcerous might the glass came forth and folded itself around Mishiko’s remains, preserving them for all to see and mourn. Many Lunars came and mourned. They also saw the tomb Bar-Izahd had built, and became curious. Bar-Izahd journeyed to the shadowy places of Creation and banished what demons remained there. Not by his sword, but by his magic. Many Lunars heard of his exploits. They saw the lack of demons, and became curious. But the conquests of Bar-Izahd would not last. Bar-Izahd killed himself some short time later. He attempted a great working to enhance his own sorcery beyond its limits and the result burned his mind to nothing. The beating of his heart was stopped by a passing traveler, a mortal delivering a merciful blow to one of Luna’s Chosen clearly suffering in his mindlessness. Many Lunars heard of this ignoble death. They reflected on the life of Bar-Izahd, and became curious. Sometime later, in contemplation of Bar-Izahd’s works and emulation of his journey, they too learned the secrets of sorcery. And they in turn passed the secrets of the path to sorcery down to the humble marked wolf before you. 

Remember this tale, pup, for tomorrow I will introduce you to Mishiko. We live in the world that she and her father made, though they spent little time in it together. Her poems will be easier to understand if you know of her past.


	2. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Castebook: No Moon

_“All instruction is but as a finger pointing to the moon; and he whose gaze is fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond.”_  
\- Masaharu Anesaki, Buddhist Art in Its Relation to Buddhist Ideals: With Special Reference to Buddhism in Japan

Caste Book: No Moon is a sourcebook about the mystics, thinkers, and dreamers among the tattooed Lunars. Like the Full Moons, the No Moons have the same Caste their kind had in the First Age, with a little bit extra. This tome records a sampling of the No Moons and the quests of the mind they often find themselves on. The No Moons are the wise women, sorcerous experimenters, Wyld speakers, prophets, and secretive scribes of the Silver Pact. This book will illustrate by example the thought-rivers that merge, divide, and flow among the No Moons.

Known as Anathema, spoken of in whispers as the Ogres in the halls of the Heptagram, the Realm’s sorcerous academy, they are shunned by civilized schools of magic and banned from copious records of arcane lore. A No Moon Lunar must learn what they can from the Silver Pact and other sources in the far Threshold, for sorcerers are far more likely than any other mortal or Dragon-Blooded to have set wards against intrusion by shapeshifters. What records they find or make they tend to guard jealously, only lending them to those they trust, often only members of the Crossroads Society. A special exception is the Caste fixing working, which they share with other No Moons even if they have not passed into the Lunar’s trust, for the need to lay the Moonsilver Tattoos is ever-present. Even this bit of lore is shared sparingly with the Changing Moons and Full Moons, however, as a botched tattooing is an affront to Luna, and a nightmare for all involved. 

Even the most learned of No Moons anticipates the joy of learning something new. Unlike some dogmatic scholars, the No Moons are noted for abandoning ideas that are no longer working - they are particularly attuned to the world changing faster than their theories given their collective past adrift in the Wyld. Even a No Moon who has argued for a thesis for centuries will give it up in the face of incontrovertible evidence. They pass on only their latest, most correct thoughts and stories. The No Moons are the keepers of the Oral History within the Silver Pact. Any Gathering worthy of the name has a No Moon telling stories around the campfire. 

Each No Moon takes their time to ponder and reflect, but is as capable of action as any Lunar. Reading people can lead them to just the right argument in a social setting, reading on the tactics of the greatest military heroes past can make them fierce generals, and training with spirits can endow them with personal might. To see a No Moon Lunar and judge them easily fooled or easily killed is a deadly mistake.

To hear some No Moons tell it, they have always been No Moons. They merely experimented with Castlessness before settling into the Moonsilver Tattoos, to be empirically sure they’d made the right choice. The elders who watched over the trials of a No Moon saw in her a great capacity of thought, and the tendency to think their way through problems. Many No Moons are pleased to welcome a new pup to their number; as a result they have some of the most artistic and expressive tattoos. 

Every No Moon has the intellectual capacity to push the boundaries of the known past what is currently unknown. Which mysteries they choose to conquer vary. Some focus on sorcery with a passion that excludes most else, some catalog the entirety of the spirit courts only to start again with updates once they have finished, many learn the secrets of the Wyld and how to counter its energies, some craft peoples to their liking as easily as Moonsilver, and others dredge the depths of the bonds they feel for the bright Solar Exalted they half remember from previous lives. Regardless of which area they choose to research, when you see a hollow circle of moonlight shine on the brow of a No Moon, secrets are hidden in the mind behind it.


End file.
